The Great Primate Handshake – Volunteer in Africa, working to conserve monkeys and apes through film and educational content production

Differences in attitudes towards animal welfare between the west and areas of poverty

Written by Phil Singh

1. October 2010

Attitudes differ on many subjects from one country to another. These can be trivial issues such as the best way to prepare food to important issues such as human and animal welfare. When many western such as the handshake volunteers tour countries abroad, they can be horrified by the way some animals are treated. The [...]

Why are people more likely to conserve species we identify with ?

Written by Phil Singh

17. September 2010

1 Comment

Why are people more likely to conserve species we identify with? Primate conservation is a prominent aspect of conservation. They share much of our ancestry and for this reason some people feel obliged to try increase their numbers. Are other species overlooked due to their inhuman like characteristics or behaviour? It is understood by scientists that [...]

Would employing more community members in conservation increase its popularity ?

Written by Phil Singh

3. September 2010

2 Comments

Would employing more community members in conservation increase its popularity? All major areas of biodiversity are full of westerners that have made the choice to move to find employment within conservation. Although this is good for conservation, it takes away jobs from locals. Many communities are unsympathetic towards conservation as they feel they are excluded. [...]

Last Stop: Colobus Trust, Diani Beach!

Written by Lauren Gribble

1. September 2010

2 Comments

Today, the Great Primate Handshake visited The Colobus Trust in the heart of Diani Beach. This non-profit organization was founded in 1997 and works to rescue and rehabilitate the area’s threatened primates. Primates such asthe Angolan colobus monkey, vervet monkeys, Sykes monkeys, bush babies and yellow baboons have all found aid from the Colobus Trust. When [...]

Reforesting Bore: A Resident’s Perspective

Written by Lucy Radford

31. August 2010

2 Comments

Jeremiah Muramba is a resident of Bore, making his living from small-scale farming and devoting his spare time to helping with efforts to reforest the area. As he puts it, his role is to make sure the existing forest and newly-planted saplings cannot be destroyed, either wilfully or accidentally. One of the main ways in [...]

Who’s Encroaching On Whom?

Written by Lucy Radford

27. August 2010

3 Comments

An article on the BBC News website on 25th August 2010 had the headline “The criminal baboons terrorising South Africa”, and goes on to describe the baboons of the Cape Peninsula as “intruders”. This got us at the Handshake thinking about the now-widespread problem of human-wildlife conflict, and the rights and wrongs of criminalising the [...]

Dinner – Kenyan style

Written by Phil Singh

25. August 2010

2 Comments

The Handshake had the privilege of having dinner within a Kenyan home on Monday night. Laurence one of the founders of the Handshake received a call from one of his old university friends, Ombaye, who invited all the 20 people involved in this tour for dinner. Ombaye Getui is a graduate of Lampeter University in [...]

Primate research in Kakamega

Written by Phil Singh

24. August 2010

1 Comment

Kakamega forest in western Kenya is the only place in the entire country where rainforest can be found. This habitat once traversed the entirety of central Africa from east to west. The main factor in the disappearance of this habitat is deforestation. Kakamega forest is now a safe haven for Kenya’s remaining native primates. Colobus [...]

Irura Woman’s Self Help Group

Written by Lauren Gribble

23. August 2010

2 Comments

For much of us that live either in North America or Great Britain clean water is simply at our disposal. With the turn of the tap we are able to drink, clean, and cook to our hearts desire. Maybe even take a ten minute shower or a nice bubble bath. Here in rural Kenya, the [...]

Kakamega Forest Again Program

Written by Anna Hartwell Douglas

23. August 2010

2 Comments

Kakamega rainforest is all that remains of a vast rainforest that stretched over Kenya and into Uganda; it is now only 230 square km in size. Much of the rainforest has been destroyed in order to utilise the land for financial gain, farming being the main economic benefit for local people. KEEP (Kakamega Environmental Education Program) [...]